Need help staying at or under 1260 calories a day!!
Rachel7575
Posts: 20 Member
Can I get some suggestions on meals I can make that will help me stay full through out the day without going over my goal of 1,260 calories a day. I find myself getting hungrier and hungrier through the day. Making it hard to stay focused on weight loss. Please help!!!!!
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Replies
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Why is your goal so low? How tall are you, what's your weight loss goal, what do you weigh now, and how active are you, and how much are you trying to lose each week?1
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What are you eating now?
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Height is 5'4 I weight 190. My goal is to get to 150 by January. My day starts with a cup of grapes and one banana in the morning with black coffee. For lunch a fruit/vegetable smoothie. Dinner some days ground turkey with roasted potatoes, other days a cup of rice with two large eggs and a whole lot of green/ red peppers. Or home made chicken soup. But these aren't filling enough and I feel the need to indulge in snacks through out the day (not healthy ones either!) any suggestions right now would help. Thank you.0
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The best way to figure this out is to spend a couple of weeks at maintenance, or a small deficit, and just log the food you normally eat weighing it with a food scale.
Track it and make notes on which days you feel more satiated, what your macro split is, and what your meal timing is.
What you eat, so long as you meet your nutritional goals most of the time, doesn't matter.
You will get a good idea of when and what to eat just observing what your preferences and habits are.
We are all so different in our food choices it is hard to say eat this or that at this or that time. What works for me may not, probably would not, work for you.
Also, if you have under 50 lbs to lose 1lbs a week is recommended, up to 100- 1.5, over 100- 2 lbs a week. Eat back exercise calories too, or at least a portion.
Cheers, h.7 -
I am in the beginning stages so I completely understand the maintenance part. Thanks for your insight!1
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Is your diary open?0
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middlehaitch wrote: »The best way to figure this out is to spend a couple of weeks at maintenance, or a small deficit, and just log the food you normally eat weighing it with a food scale.
Track it and make notes on which days you feel more satiated, what your macro split is, and what your meal timing is.
What you eat, so long as you meet your nutritional goals most of the time, doesn't matter.
You will get a good idea of when and what to eat just observing what your preferences and habits are.
We are all so different in our food choices it is hard to say eat this or that at this or that time. What works for me may not, probably would not, work for you.
Also, if you have under 50 lbs to lose 1lbs a week is recommended, up to 100- 1.5, over 100- 2 lbs a week. Eat back exercise calories too, or at least a portion.
Cheers, h.
x2rachelrodriguez7575 wrote: »Height is 5'4 I weight 190. My goal is to get to 150 by January. My day starts with a cup of grapes and one banana in the morning with black coffee. For lunch a fruit/vegetable smoothie. Dinner some days ground turkey with roasted potatoes, other days a cup of rice with two large eggs and a whole lot of green/ red peppers. Or home made chicken soup. But these aren't filling enough and I feel the need to indulge in snacks through out the day (not healthy ones either!) any suggestions right now would help. Thank you.
I second the advice from @middlehaitch and would add that you may just need to eat more (volume) food. A cup of grapes and a banana is nothing and a fruit/veggie smoothie isn't particularly calorically dense unless you're adding lots of stuff. If you feel the need to snack, try adding those snack calories to your meal in the forms of some more fat and protein. It looks like you don't get any protein or fat until dinner. Satiety is a very individual thing, but that would leave me starving! I drink cream in my coffee everyday and notice that if I have it black instead, I'm much hungrier throughout the morning. The extra fat helps keep me full (I do eat 2 breakfasts, by design).
Overall it sounds like your planned meals are no where near 1260. A cup of grapes and a banana is less than 200 calories and a cup of rice and two eggs is only about 350. Try eating more food at each meal, and it may lead you to needing fewer snacks.0 -
I would recommend that you try intermittent fasting. It will allow you to push all of your calories later in the day. You'll be able to have bigger meals and feel full.0
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Here's an example of one of my 1260 days. I'm sure I was hungry but I feel like I was getting more food.
Breakfast
Barbara's - Shredded Wheat Biscuit, 2 biscuits 140
Organic Valley - 1% Organic Milk, 0.5 cup 55
Tea - Brewed, prepared with tap water (black tea), 1 cup (8 fl oz) 2
Snack
Friendship - 2% cottage cheese, 0.25 cup (113 g) 50
Blueberries - Raw, 0.33 cup 27
Lunch
Rotisserie Chicken, Lemon Pepper, (85g) 160
Sunset Grown - Campari Tomato, 3 ounce 15
Paul Newman's - Balsamic Vinegerette (Lite), 1.5 Tbls (30g) 34
Dole - Chopped Romaine Salad, 2 cups 15
Organic - Spring Mix Salad, 1 cups 10
Avocado - Avocado - Medium, 2.4 oz 112
Dinner - BLT
Wegmans - Reduced Sodium Reduced Fat Bacon, 3 Strips 60
Hellman - Mayonnaise, 1 tbsp (13 g) 90
Canyon Ranch - Sprouted Multi-grain Bread, 2 slice 180
Tomatoes - Sliced, 3 slice 15
Raw - Romaine Lettuce Leaf, 2 leaf (10g) 4
Snack (2)
Mellon - Honeydew, 14.4 ounce 152
Friendship - Lowfat 2% Cottage Cheese, 0.25 cup 45
peanut butter - Trader Joes, 0.5 fluid ounce 95
TOTAL: 1,2611 -
[1] Try some lower calorie density foods to increase the volume (rice, potatoes are pretty dense - so you'll only get to eat a small volume). The fruit and vegetables will probably be more satisfying in non-liquid form.
[2] Eating items with more fiber (like beans, peas, green beans) will often be filling.
[3] Experiment with macros, as said above. Different people can find different rations of carbs/fat/protein more satisfying/filling.
[4] Make sure you've picked a reasonable rate of loss (as said above). Too high of a deficit and you'll likely be hungry no matter what.
[5] Add in some regular exercise so you don't have to eat so little. (and eat back the calories).0 -
More protein can help keep you more full, and lots of vegetables. Eggs for breakfast, salad with meat/cheese for lunch, meat and veg for dinner have worked for me. Starting the day with just fruit is tasty, but would only satisfy me for about half an hour.
TBH, I don't do well on that limited a calorie count. I exercise and eat back my calories, so I don't feel deprived. 1200 calories is hard to live on.6 -
You may want to consider limiting some of your higher fat items. If you want to be at 1200-ish calories/day, you're going to be very hungry if you're using 1/4 of your calories on a TB of mayo, a TB of PB and maybe 1/2 an avocado? You could eat 10-ish ounces of chicken breast for the same calories (and I find that infinitely more filling). Nothing wrong with any of those foods, but they are quite calorie dense which means you're eating many calories for very little volume of food (which tends to make me quite hungry).4
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I go with a slice of toast with peanut butter and a few strawberries for 350, a green dragon roll for 400 for lunch, leaves 550 for dinner...personally I'd go walk for an hour just to make it a heartier dinner but that's just me, you could do spaghetti squash with tomato sauce and meatballs for 550 and feel quite satisfied.0
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You could also have a dempsters everything bagel with cream cheese for around 350/400 And that is very satisfyinf.0
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An english muffin with avocado, a poached egg and salsa comes in around 350...delicious and satisfying2
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Duck_Puddle wrote: »You may want to consider limiting some of your higher fat items. If you want to be at 1200-ish calories/day, you're going to be very hungry if you're using 1/4 of your calories on a TB of mayo, a TB of PB and maybe 1/2 an avocado? You could eat 10-ish ounces of chicken breast for the same calories (and I find that infinitely more filling). Nothing wrong with any of those foods, but they are quite calorie dense which means you're eating many calories for very little volume of food (which tends to make me quite hungry).
The person who posted the sample menu is not the OP. OP's descriptions contain very little fat.
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More protein and fat keep me full longer. You're having almost exclusively carbs until dinner. Chicken breast, more lean turkey early in the day, eggs and egg whites, adding protein sources such as cottage cheese, greek yogurt, or protein powder to your fruit smoothies will probably help. I stick to 1200-1300 most days but I'm <30% carbs.6
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I eat about 1300 a day. My diary is open if you want to look and if you want any recipes from it!0
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Exercise more and you get to eat more.2
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I would think that a banana and a cup of grapes for breakfast has a lot of natural sugar. I think 1/2 cup of grapes or 1/2 large banana plus a protein would be better (eggs with/or without vegies, cottage cheese etc.)1
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middlehaitch wrote: »The best way to figure this out is to spend a couple of weeks at maintenance, or a small deficit, and just log the food you normally eat weighing it with a food scale.
Track it and make notes on which days you feel more satiated, what your macro split is, and what your meal timing is.
What you eat, so long as you meet your nutritional goals most of the time, doesn't matter.
You will get a good idea of when and what to eat just observing what your preferences and habits are.
We are all so different in our food choices it is hard to say eat this or that at this or that time. What works for me may not, probably would not, work for you.
Also, if you have under 50 lbs to lose 1lbs a week is recommended, up to 100- 1.5, over 100- 2 lbs a week. Eat back exercise calories too, or at least a portion.
Cheers, h.
Really Good Advice. I noted this too. I have the same problem. Being hungry and feeling like I want more food and my calories allow.0 -
Duck_Puddle wrote: »You may want to consider limiting some of your higher fat items. If you want to be at 1200-ish calories/day, you're going to be very hungry if you're using 1/4 of your calories on a TB of mayo, a TB of PB and maybe 1/2 an avocado? You could eat 10-ish ounces of chicken breast for the same calories (and I find that infinitely more filling). Nothing wrong with any of those foods, but they are quite calorie dense which means you're eating many calories for very little volume of food (which tends to make me quite hungry).
The person who posted the sample menu is not the OP. OP's descriptions contain very little fat.
Ohhhh. Thank you. Didn't read closely enough.
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And now I'm hungry
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Are there other stored menu items on this website? I'd love to see some menu ideas for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks.0
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Not enough protein,I'd die eating just grapes for breakfast, I do one whole egg,2 egg white and a slice of ham for breakfast, comes to less than 300 cals BUT keeps me full way longer than a carb/sugar breakfast5
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With less than 50 lbs to lose you should be aiming for 1 lb/week, which I'm guessing would give you more than 1260 cals. Also, do you exercise? If so, you should be logging and eating back some of those cals as well.
What people find satiating varies widely but many find protein to be helpful to incorporate in meals.
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Are there other stored menu items on this website? I'd love to see some menu ideas for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks.
Check out the recipe section.
My diary is public, so you can peek at it if you like. My kcals are in the 1700-1850 range, though (other than some really high days over the past couple of weekends).0 -
I exercise for 40 minutes in the morning and same after work at 6:30ish pm. I do burn a lot of calories doing so but I still try to keep my calorie (food) intake at 1260, even after exercise. Thanks to all for your input and great food advise I will be trying them for sure! Also what is a good exercise for efficient weight loss. I do 25 minutes on the treadmill, 15 on jump rope/ pull ups.0
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Eat your exercise calories. (MFP gives you your base calories without exercise)
You are doing yourself no favours eating at such a low calorie goal. You will in time become lethargic and underperform when exercising. Your hair will become brittle and you will start losing muscle strength. And that is just a start to the problems you may get.
Set your goal to 1 lbs a week and eat back at least 50% of your exercise- adjust the amount that you eat back so that you are on track with your goal.
Cheers, h.
A wise rabbit once said words to this effect 'those that eat the most and still lose, win'
I will add -those that eat the least and still lose usually end up sick or binging. 4 -
Add some eggs and meat to your day0
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